tomorrow is never what it's supposed to be
by Icestorm238
Summary: "Mikhail tries to protest but Jin ignores him and leaves, and, for the first time, Mikhail is left alone with Malos." Malos and Mikhail have their first proper conversation without Jin's presence.


Jin announces his presence in the room with a swift statement instead of a greeting. "We're moving on an Indoline convoy."

Jerking up from his reclined position on the sole sofa, Mikhail snaps out his daydreams and starts paying attention.

Malos, too, has sat up straighter. "They have what we need?"

Jin nods as he spreads a map on the table. Mikhail bends over to see, and Malos kicks off from the wall he'd been leaning against to join them. "The convoy is large, and split into two groups. There's quite a distance between them. I propose we also split, and one of us attacks the back - the group with the core crystals - which should send them running to the front for help. While they're disjointed and confused, we strike, and wipe them out."

Mikhail frowns. "Can we pull that off with just three of us?"

Laughter cuts through the air. "'Course we can," Malos smirks. "They're nothing compared to us- well, compared to me and Jin."

Jin glares at him, but nods anyway. "We'll be fine," he confirms.

"You're taking him, then?" Malos asks, jerking his head at Mikhail, who glares back at him in response.

Jin surprises them both by saying, "no." At the startled looks he gets from both of his companions, he elaborates, "Of the three of us, I work best alone. It makes more sense for you two to pair up."

"Get ready," he adds after a second, "we're heading out immediately."

Mikhail tries to protest but Jin ignores him and leaves, and, for the first time, Mikhail is left alone with Malos.

"Uh," he says eloquently into the gaping silence that follows, shifting his weight from left to right and back again.

Malos doesn't even spare him a glance. "Let's go get this over with," he sighs, and stalks out of the room.

He scrambles to follow, nearly forgetting his weapon in the rush. Jin has been trying to teach him how to call out his new Blade weapon. Progress has been slow. It's all a natural instinct for Jin, so describing the process to someone as clueless as Mikhail is difficult. He's sticking to a simple sword in the meantime - one Jin gifted him only a year or so ago, but it feels like it's been an eternity to Mikhail given all that's happened since. The sword is heavy in his untrained hands, inexperience marring every stroke, but he's slowly improving. It'll do, until he can figure out how the chunk of glowing rock lodged in his chest actually works.

"So," he tries again. "This is fun. Just me and you, off to kill some guys."

"You can't be older than ten," Malos mutters in response, and Mikhail can't help but feel a little insulted. "You've got to be too young to talk so casually about murder."

"I may be young," Mikhail retorts, "but I'm not sheltered. I've seen some shit."

Malos still hasn't looked his way. "Great, whatever. You can shut up now, kid."

"Ah, don't be like that," Mikhail laughs, falling back into his familiar defensive habits at the flick of a switch. "We'll be stuck together for the next few days, we might as well get to know each other a bit better."

"The time will pass much quicker if I don't have to listen to your whining."

He sighs. "Come on, Malos, Jin's lumped us together for a reason, and if I know him at all it's because he wants us to get closer." Malos, if anything, seems to stiffen at that, but doesn't contest the words. Mikhail takes that as a cue to continue. "We're on the same side now, and if we want to achieve our goal we'll need to be able to cooperate."

"And you think we can spout our feelings and suddenly become best buds?" Malos scoffs. Mikhail can practically see the disdain etched on his face.

He forces another laugh. "Oh, not me. Jin thinks that, though, and he knows a thing or two."

Malos lets out a groan, then spins on his heel to finally face Mikhail. "You're a survivor, right?" he asks abruptly.

Mikhail blinks at the sudden change of topic. "Of what? Because I've survived a lot recently." He's not exaggerating; he's lived through the War, the fall of Torna, Amalthus' experiments and, at the start of it all…

"Me," Malos clarifies. "Can't see why else Jin would take in a tag-along kid."

He hesitates for a fraction of a second, then thinks _what the hell_ and nods. "My village's only survivor."

He still hears the screams sometimes, sees the blood and the corpses, feels the roaring heat of the flames that sprang up as humans came and cut down the few survivors of Malos' Artifices until Mikhail was all that remained, cowering beneath the scorched corpse of his mother, hiding for hours until he heard voices and made the split-second decision to trust.

If someone had told him that things had gotten worse - that he'd find a new family only to lose them all, that after losing his village he'd lose his entire Titan, that he'd be torturously experimented on until he lost his humanity - and that, at the end of it all, he'd be standing allied with the man who set off the horrible chain of events in the first place? He would have laughed, maybe even cried, but he never would have believed.

Sometimes he catches himself staring at Malos, his breaths quickening, his foot tapping a rapid beat, and he has to tear his gaze away and think of literally anything else. Sometimes his thoughts shift from Malos to Amalthus, and that just sends him spiralling further. Jin has caught him like that before. Jin is getting good at calming him down. Jin understands.

"Mikhail!"

He jumps. He'd almost forgotten about Malos, and that's not an easy feat given the aura the man exudes. His presence fills the room. "Huh?"

Malos' brow furrows in - concern? "You spaced out there."

His breathing is fast. He forces himself to slow it down, digging the nails of one hand into the palm of the other. "I'm fine," he grins through the tightness in his chest (the crystal feels like it's digging in, an unnatural invader, and it feels so, so wrong). "What were you saying?"

This is met with a frown, but Malos doesn't push it. "We should get going," he says instead, returning to his previous march towards the exit.

Mikhail takes a moment, squeezing his hands together in a weak mockery of comfort, then follows.

"Are you really okay with working alongside me?" Malos asks as he catches up.

He stares into the joins at the back of Malos' armour. "Jin trusts you," he says, "and I trust Jin."

"Is that trust enough when I destroyed your home?"

Mikhail shrugs, despite knowing that Malos isn't looking. He's honestly surprised at where the conversation has lead - he didn't actually think Malos would give in to his attempts at conversation, and definitely didn't expect them to talk about… this. "I trust Jin," he repeats, "with my life. So yeah, it's enough. Besides," he adds as an afterthought, "we want the same thing, right?"

Malos shoots him a glance. "The destruction of the world, and everyone in it, including us?"

"Sure," Mikhail shrugs again. "What else is there left for me?"

"Damn, kid," Malos shakes his head. "You're too young for this."

"It's strange to hear such concern from the bringer of destruction." Mikhail murmurs, half joking, half not.

"It's strange to hear such strong nihilism from a little kid like you," Malos throws back instantly, and Mikhail can't restrain a grin.

They stare at each other, and Mikhail thinks there's a new understanding between them. Thinks, because try as he might, he can't read Malos. Either way, something has changed during this conversation, hopefully for the better.

"We'd better get moving, old man," Mikhail chirps, breaking the silence with a cheerfulness that's not all faked, "otherwise Jin will be back before we've even left."

Malos rolls his eyes. "Lead the way, kid."


End file.
